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Are you longing for a sense of inner peace? Imagine living in a world where fear, shame, and feelings of inadequacy are replaced with an unshakable peace. As my wife Niki and I journey through our Advent series of the Real Friends podcast, we uncover the deep and profound concept of this peace and its direct link to our relationship with God. We'll grapple with the emotions that often cloud our tranquility, and reveal how Christ can bring a refreshing sense of rest and acceptance, a refuge amidst life's storms.
Well, shalom everybody. Welcome to the Real Friends podcast. This is our special Advent series where we are doing daily devotionals to help you keep Jesus at the center of the Christmas season. Today, I am joined by my beautiful wife, nikki Hello, a woman of many words, as you can tell and we are going to continue on our theme. What's our theme?
Speaker 2:
this week Peace Shalom meaning wholeness, the Prince of Peace.
Speaker 1:
Isaiah 9 says that the Prince of Peace, or the Prince of Shalom, has arrived. Jesus came to bring wholeness into the world, to offer wholeness to broken mankind. So yesterday we looked at one facet of the peace that Jesus brought, namely, he came to save us from our sins, which means we can now, through Him, have peace with God. That's our greatest need, and we are so grateful for the peace that we have in Jesus Christ. Today we are going to look at another facet of peace that we have in Jesus. What is that?
Speaker 2:
Inner peace.
Speaker 1:
We know that many people are on this quest for inner peace. They have so much inner turmoil and my wife is smiling at me. Why? Because this is something I've struggled with for many years. It's not funny. This is not going to go well.
Speaker 2:
We really want to get into all of this with microphones.
Speaker 1:
There are many gurus today that tell us how to have inner peace, and where do they tell us to look for inner peace?
Speaker 2:
In ourselves, in our own strength.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So they say, look within. But you know, I don't care how much yoga you do or deep breathing.
Speaker 2:
I'm thinking of a certain picture on the back porch and breathing yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I was out on my deck one day doing deep breathing in the cold and it embarrasses my family, but it doesn't matter how much. I'm not against, obviously, deep breathing and meditation and as much as we're meditating on the Word of God, but all of those things really will not bring you peace without what.
Speaker 2:
God.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, we've got to have peace with God. So, first and foremost, the peace that Jesus brought is peace with God, and then that then naturally leads to inner peace. So, nikki, read, if you would, psalm 4, verse 8.
Speaker 2:
In peace. I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, o Lord. Make me dwell in safety.
Speaker 1:
So a lot of people cannot sleep at night because they do not have inner peace. You work at a mental hospital.
Speaker 2:
No, I don't Well, you don't Well. What do you do for a living? This is news to me.
Speaker 1:
We need to. We need to, you know, have more conversations.
Speaker 2:
So I work at a long term care facility which is part of Eastern state hospital.
Speaker 1:
It's more fun to say that you work at a mental hospital. That's where we met right.
Speaker 2:
Yes, the difference being the hospital you're locked in, you can't leave. Our residents can leave and come and go as they would like.
Speaker 1:
And so is it fair to say that a lot of the people that you interact with have no inner peace.
Speaker 2:
Yes, it's very sad sometimes, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And that's probably an vast understatement. And so we think, oh sure, those people they don't have inner peace. But we know that there are people who look very well put together that really like that same kind of inner peace.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Well, there are many reasons for this lack of inner peace and they all spring board off not being right with God. And when we do not have peace with God, we have this inner feeling of inadequacy. We feel people feel like you know what? I am not enough.
Speaker 2:
Well, the truth is we aren't enough, but Christ is.
Speaker 1:
That's right, every human being. They have some level of understanding that they miss the mark. They fall short of something. They may not know what that something is, but the Bible says that we all fall short of the glory of God. So because of these feelings of inadequacy, you know, people spend their lives trying to prove themselves by working very hard, doing good works, to be seen, to be accepted, to get ahead, and they're just really. Ultimately they're searching for their identity. But for those of us who are in Jesus, that quest, wonderfully, is over. We can rest in him, our identity is in him and again we're accepted by God through him. So we have nothing left to prove. So through Jesus, again that inner turmoil that can dissipate, we can truly have inner peace through him. What is another reason that people have this lack of inner peace?
Speaker 2:
For feelings of shame.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you know, even if people do not believe in God, there is still an awareness of sin. They may not call it sin, but there's this awareness of a feeling you might say dirty. One of my favorite verses about this is found in 1 John 1, verse 9.
Speaker 2:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Speaker 1:
So we hear a lot about the forgiveness that we have in Jesus right.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
And that's a glorious truth. But what's the second part of that verse? Speak to you.
Speaker 2:
So not only does he forgive us, but he also cleanses us from those feelings of shame. So if you've experienced cleaning your house all day, working all day, and then you're able to take a nice hot shower afterwards, that feeling.
Speaker 1:
There's no better feeling.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
You've just felt cleansed and honestly, I've experienced this, and even as Christians, when we sin. John says if we confess those things before the Lord, it's just, it is like taking a spiritual shower, I guess you could say, and it's just this wonderful, clean feeling that the Lord gives us. And so, yeah, that carrying of shame is another reason for that inner turmoil. But there's another reason that we'll point out for those feelings of inner turmoil that lack of peace, and that's simply just the fears that are associated with the threats we experience in this world. So we have, you know, natural disasters, violence, economic woes, sickness, so on and so forth, but through Jesus, even in those situations, we can experience peace in the midst of those threats.
Speaker 2:
Philippians 4-7,. In the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1:
So the word guard there in the Greek it's a military word that would have been used to describe a city that's surrounded by an army for protection and, as we know, there are dangers in every city and every neighborhood. And if you had an army around your neighborhood you would feel a little bit more secure at night.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
I think we need to share a story because I don't know what you're talking about. There are three of us living in this house. Dylan and I went to a conference, and so you were here by yourself.
Speaker 2:
The honor's gone now and the dog doesn't like me, so I was wondering if the dog would protect me, so I had to take it into my own hands.
Speaker 1:
He would protect you.
Speaker 2:
I don't know about it. So I FaceTime you the first night and the house.
Speaker 1:
The tour of the house was interesting. Why don't you tell our listeners?
Speaker 2:
I'm feeling judged right now, honestly, but you know so I'm out here by myself and the dog's here, but again not sure about it. So I'm thinking, as it's time to go to sleep, how can I protect myself? Well, I walked out in the garage and I found a 2x4. I'm like, okay, this might hurt. So I said it by, you know, the front door.
Speaker 2:
Well, first, we should say, though, I had all of the high bar stools, dining room bar stools, jammed up under all of the doors that lead to outside. So I had all of those propped up against the door so nobody could turn the door handles and get in. But I still didn't feel safe. So I had the two by four. And then I see Dylan's golf bag that had all the golf clubs I'm not sure how many are included in a golf bag, but so I took all of those in place, dylan, strategically around the house, so, you know, by the bed, by the garage door, by the front door, by the piano, everywhere, so at least a good 10 golf clubs, I would say. Then I had some knives out, and then I found the bat. So the bat was by the bed, and then I had the gun. But you know, I'm not sure how to shoot the gun.
Speaker 1:
So one of the things you shared with me. That's really funny, but what I thought is you know what, by the time they got to your bedroom, where you were.
Speaker 2:
They would have collected them all.
Speaker 1:
They would have had 20 weapons to beat you with, but you but they didn't know that they were there. But you told me that when we were gone you just said I had a lot of trouble sleeping.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
And so, because of all the physical threats that we sense in the world, many people just walk around in fear and because of that they have no inner peace.
Speaker 1:
You know, the world is full of dangers and violence and disease and disasters, but even in the midst of those things, through Jesus, our hearts and minds are guarded, through Jesus Christ, who is the good shepherd who leads us in peace beside the still waters.
Speaker 1:
I'm not saying that we don't care about those things, like I mean, we obviously lock our doors at night, we have a gun, we have a German shepherd, all of those things. So I'm not saying that we don't care, but we sleep well at night Because and this is the thing that Jesus does give us a peace that surpasses all under standing, one that guards our hearts and minds in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're listening and you are just looking for that inner peace, if your heart is distressed and in turmoil, you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and, by faith, the Lord will guard your hearts and minds. He'll give you the peace that you so long for, and we need a lot of that peace during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. Right, yes, all right, nick, thanks for joining me, you're welcome, you did fantastic.
Speaker 1:
Hope you guys will tune in tomorrow. Fine work today.
